Unwritten Scenes
by Harry Potter Fan 1994
Summary: These stories are to close loopholes that, due to the cruelty and injustice of the world, Joss Whedon was unable to close himself. Each chapter is standalone. The first: the Battle of Haven. The second: the Tam family dynamic. The third: The Doctor's Speech.
1. The Shepherd's Story

I'm a little rusty, since it's been a few years, but I would appreciate advice. I know this isn't canon, but it's what I wish would've been the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly.

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**The Shepherd**

The minute the Operative's two ships broke atmo, Book knew his Haven was lost. He ushered the children into the basement of a building, but some of them refused to leave their preacher's side. One of the smallest, Kaylee's favorite, disappeared from view—Book knew he was hiding and would come out later, but time was short and the adults needed to be armed.

"Sam. Take these. Unlock the armory," ordered the Shepherd, throwing a set of keys at a nearby gawker. "Find as many people as you can to empty the place and arm everyone you see. Fast!"

The first ship began to shoot and the remaining adults ran for cover. Building after building burst into flame, the wooden beams collapsing onto each other and spreading the fire to the lower floors.

_The children. _They were going to burn alive. The Shepherd ran for the building that hid them, but he was too far to do anything as a missile drilled through it and then exploded, showering everything in a fifty foot radius with debris. Book stopped in his tracks for a precious second, mouth agape. He could hear the agonized screams of those not lucky enough to die on impact.

"Shepherd!" A gun was shoved into his hands. "One of their ships is land—" A new round of strafing cut Sam short. He fell at the Shepherd's feet.

_Lord God, have mercy… _The ringing gunshots stopped abruptly. Book turned, scanning the surrounding area for both the number of casualties and the reason for the ceasefire.

Out of the grounded ship came three men. Two sported semi-automatic weapons and immediately engaged the remaining Havenfolk. The Operative, meanwhile, strolled towards him, hands clasped behind his back as he surveyed the damage and stepped over bodies. He stopped a few feet from Book and half-smiled. "Shepherd."

Book did not reply.

"Your new home is much…messier…than the last. I prefer the old place. Less blood."

"Why, Tyler? Why are you doing this?"

Quick as lightning, the Operative pulled out his gun and shot the Shepherd in the stomach. Book stumbled back, clutching at the wound and trying to breathe and not breathe at the same time. He was a dead man. It would take time, but he was done. "We had a deal," the Operative reminded him calmly as he holstered the weapon. "You never call me that, and I never call you Father. Remember?"

Book could only gasp in response. He'd been shot before, but somehow, this was less painful. He still had to defend what was left of his home, and his focus blocked out some of the pain.

"I'm sorry, but you don't deserve an honorable death. The sword is meant for those who have done great things. You…you broke our family tradition. Ran, like a coward."

"I…I didn't…" Book looked to the skies for strength. "I just…found something else to…believe in."

"Something other than the betterment of humanity? Something that you could achieve by traveling the stars in a smuggling ship with the most dangerous of fugitives? I still cannot fathom that the man who taught me to stand by my belief was so easily shaken in his."

Book could no longer stand. He crumpled to the ground, still trying to hold the blood in. The Operative came closer and leaned in.

"Let's see how easily your friends' belief in you fails. Before Malcolm Reynolds dies at my hands, I will tell him everything. Tell him who my predecessor was, and the work he did for the Central Planets. I will show him the real 'Shepherd Book'. I'm sure he has questions. They will be answered. And your memory will forever be disgraced." He paused. "Forever. Perhaps I misspoke. Disgraced until I kill the crew and the girl. Then you'll be erased from memory altogether."

The Operative pushed Book onto his side and reached into his pocket, pulling out the Identicard.

"The Alliance would like this back. No need to allow scavengers access to everything."

"Tyler…you don't understand…what they will do…to that girl. Please. For once. Look at…the cause…you are helping."

"And there it is again. I'll let that slide. Good bye, Father. I'll let my soldiers finish off what's left here."

Shepherd Book waited until the Operative had boarded his ship and left the ground before pulling himself up. The gunfire from the ship that remained had resumed, although there was no one fighting back. The Shepherd struggled through the broken boards and corpses that had once been his friends. Only when he'd found an over-the-shoulder missile launcher did he start to worry about being spotted.

The ship was too far for him to do any damage from where he was standing. With what had become a permanent wince, Book raised the smaller gun given to him by Sam and fired three shots in the air.

The pilot turned the ship as fast as possible, and was soon within range of Book's weapon. Unfortunately, that went both ways, and the Shepherd was forced to crawl for cover before actually discharging anything. He had one shot, and just holding it on his shoulder was starting to seem impossible.

_May God forgive me. _ He ignored the stabbing stings from his stomach and took aim.

Three seconds after he fired, the ship crashed with an earth-shattering quake. The Shepherd dropped the launcher and fell back onto the dirt, finally at peace to pray for those who'd lost their lives.


	2. The Tam Family Dynamic

This idea came to me from the dismissive way Gabriel Tam talked to River when she asked him for whatever new technology Simon was getting. Also, please do review-it helps me get better as a writer and if there's something you don't like, I'd like to know about it. Or if there's something you do like. That's nice too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly.

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**The Tams**

Simon couldn't remember how young he'd been when he'd eavesdropped on that whispered dialogue between his parents. Obviously, it had to have been long enough after River's birth for his parents to grow sufficiently disconcerted with her. Regardless of the chronology, Simon recalled the conversation quite well, heard by the ears of an incredulous little boy from behind the kitchen door.

"What do we _do _with her? She's...she's a _freak_, Gabriel!"

"Regan!"

"Don't pretend you don't think the same."

"She's gifted."

"She knows things! Things she shouldn't! Things that are..._they're in my head_!" Regan shuddered. "She knows what I think about her."

"Then she's perceptive, Regan. Don't be ridiculous."

"She's _three_. How can she know what I'm feeling?" Oh. So that's how long it had been.

"Both of our children have been unquestionably intelligent from a young age-"

"No. No. Simon is a normal boy-he's intelligent, of course, but normal. He excels in academics and that's as far as he goes, thank goodness. Her, on the other hand...Please Gabriel. Don't defend her. She's unnatural. I just don't understand why this happened to _me_..."

"To you? You think this is all about you? This happened to the whole family. However unnatural or freakish, we all have to deal with it. And frankly, Simon is doing the best job, young as he is."

"Yes, but he doesn't have to worry about what the rest of the world thinks. _He_ got a friend out of it. _We_ have an embarrassment. An unsettling one."

"What do you want me to do about it, Regan? Everyone knows her as our daughter. We can't just...get rid of her."

"I don't know what to do. But for the record, I never wanted her. I never wanted another child. Simon is just perfect. He's all I-"

"Yes, alright. It was my fault for thinking his sibling would be just as perfect. Blame me if you want. But he'll go places, Regan. He'll do well. Maybe that's enough to alleviate some of the consequences of having...her."

"Simon." Simon stifled a gasp as a tiny hand tugged at his shirt. "What are you doing?" whispered River.

"N-nothing. I was just-"

"Being sneaky." There was a look in her eyes, like she knew what had transpired between her parents and had somehow accepted it. She scanned the area around them. "Good thinking, Agent Simon. We need to lay low or the enemy will know we've infiltrated."

Infiltrated. What three-year-old knew a word like that? She never failed to amaze him. "Absolutely. On your lead, Agent River."

Years and years later, though, Simon still remembered. So when his father promised to disown him if he continued his rescue mission for River, Simon never questioned it. He was only too happy that he and his sister were finally their own, unbroken family.


	3. The Doctor's Speech

This takes place any time after the first episode. Also, I'm taking requests on scenes that maybe you thought weren't explained so well.

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly.

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**Simon and Kaylee**

The memory ate at him every day, but it was especially biting when he saw her. His stomach would drop unpleasantly, and he'd avoid eye contact as much as possible. He couldn't even imagine what she must have thought of him; he wouldn't blame her if she cursed his very name whenever she felt the sting of the still healing wound. So selfish. So cruel. So...inhuman.

He couldn't take it anymore. He would beg for forgiveness if he had to. Clearly that wasn't beneath him, since he'd hit rock bottom the minute he'd hesitated to treat her.

Simon knocked on the engine room door, though it was already open. "Uh, Kaylee?"

She looked up from a wooden part she was fiddling with and smiled at him. "Morning, Doctor Tam."

"Um. Morning." He still heard her screams. They drowned the words that were forming in his mind. "Nice day...in this...room."

"I...s'pose so. You alright, Doctor?" Concerned. Concerned for _him_, despicable monster that he was. He didn't deserve it.

"Don't call me that."

"Pardon?"

"Doctor. Don't call me that. I don't...I've lost the right to that title."

She straightened and put her hands on her hips. "Now then, _Doctor_, just 'cause you're runnin' from the Alliance-"

"No. It's not that. It's...Kaylee, I wouldn't've let you die." It was spilling out. It felt like sludge on his tongue but he had the distinct feeling he was talking too fast. "I would never have let you die. Even if he hadn't turned the ship around. That gunshot wouldn't have killed you for hours and I knew that and that's why I risked it but Kaylee, if you'd been in any real danger I wouldn't have-"

"Simon!" She cut him off. "I know that. You were just tryin' to protect River and survive-"

"That doesn't matter! Protecting River makes me an official criminal, but what I did makes me an unofficial one, too. I can't allow myself to let others suffer for my survival. Any doctor worth anything would've put the situation aside and done his job, but I hesitated and that's why you shouldn't call me Doctor Tam or The Good Doctor or anything that gives the idea that I'm a decent human being." Simon was breathing hard. It didn't feel much better now that everything was out in the open, but he was surprised at how long his rant had lasted considering his aforementioned inability to speak to the engineer.

She was silent for a while. He braced himself for whatever absolutely justifiable punishment was coming his way.

"Simon, I ain't mad at you. Sure, maybe I woulda liked some painkillers a mite earlier, but you saved me in the end, didn'tcha? Without you, I wouldn't be standing here."

"Without me, you wouldn't have been shot in the first place. I just...I was so afraid they would take River back just to torture her again, maybe until she died. You couldn't have known that, though. All you knew was that I was the reason you were in so much pain and I wouldn't do anything about it."

"It weren't no one's fault," Kaylee stressed. "That's been talked through. And it's okay that you were tryin' to save your sister. She's all you got. We all just try to hang on to what we got out here." She smiled. "You know, I was a little distracted while y'all were bargainin' over helpin' me and changin' course, but it was kinda good, in a way. It's hard to explain, but there's stuff you only see when you're hurt real bad. Like, some things look crystal clear and others are fuzzy, like they ain't important. And sounds come to you in waves. I think at some point my brain just went on a high, like I was on some kinda drug. It was an experience...I'll never forget it."

He must have looked so incredulous that Kaylee's smile turned into a laugh. "How in the _'verse,_" he said slowly, "could you find the bright side of _that_?"

She shrugged. "Mal says it's a talent. Anyways," She turned back to her work, "I forgive you. I really do, Simon. I think that maybe the problem is that you ain't gonna forgive yourself anytime soon."

Simon leaned back on the wall behind him and sighed. "I just...I can't. You've let me off the hook so easily, I feel like someone has to be furious at how fast I was to turn on everything I stood for. A doctor wouldn't do that. How am I supposed to live up to that title?"

She hissed, frowned, and then looked up at him. "I guess you'll just have to take care of us on Serenity. And you can start by fixin' this splinter." She held out her pointer finger.

Trying not to smile, Simon examined it. For the most part, the wooden piece was exposed. It was something Kaylee probably could have taken care of herself, but he was oddly grateful for the opportunity. Holding it with his nails, he gently tugged it out and stared at the drop of blood that formed on her fingertip. The protocol for blood flashed through his mind-anti-pathogenic wipes, infection-preventing bandages. But in that moment he decided that forgiving himself would involve more than following protocol. It would mean giving unselfishly, caring beyond what was accepted, and proving to himself that he was as human as Kaylee believed him to be. So he put her finger in his mouth and sucked the blood off.

Then he looked up at her. She was blushing. And suddenly, Simon Tam had an entirely new reason for not being able to talk to her.


End file.
